our starting point this week is damascus with stops in washington, paris, moscow and london on a story heading for a resolution of some kind at the u.n. headquarters in new york city. syrian is a diplo -- syria is a diplomatic battle. >> the media strategies are cynical. >> we had a media machine swirling out of control. and then you had a generally pretty high level of ignorance in the media, themselves. >> binding commitments. >> the media battle is as crucial to the war efforts in all directions as the bombs and the bullets. >> no matter what the u.n. inspectors say about chemical weapons, no matter what the obama administration says about the need to attack, no matter what punditry is produced, and no matter how well intentioned some may be. >> there is moral equivalent. >> the road to damascus rungs through the hell of what was baghdad. >> thet there were no weapons of mass destruction. we have the opposite situation in syria where it is absolutely clear now, after the u.n. report, that there are weapons of mass destruction butprice precisely because of the experience of iraq, it